Author: David Berljawsky

http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/eng/index/

Panel on Research Ethics

This is the Canadian government’s page about research ethics. There is a link on this page (TCPS) that offers the policy statement about the “Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans.” I chose this website because I felt that it might be an interesting contrast to some of the guidelines to first Nations research that we have examined in this module by viewing the Canadian governments view on human based research. This is a very dense site, with much information presented. If interested in analyzing I recommend reading the FAQ and the TCPS Tutorial.

Here is the mandate of the site.

The written terms of reference of the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) outline its formal mandate, define its general functions and duties, and have shaped some of PRE’s milestones since its creation in November 2001.

PRE is mandated by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to promote high ethical standards of conduct in research involving humans through the development, evolution, interpretation, and implementation of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS). The Agencies adopted the TCPS in August 1998 as a common research ethics policy for those conducting, participating in, or reviewing human research in institutions funded by CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC.

PRE further assists the TCPS-user community by identifying TCPS educational needs and activities. It also participates in the ongoing dialogue on a national oversight or governance system for research involving humans.

PRE’s 12 member advisory panel is drawn from diverse backgrounds and disciplines so that it may provide the Agencies with multidisciplinary and independent reflection and advice on research ethics policy of the TCPS. PRE develops its advice based on a set of First Principles applied to lessons on, and the evolution of, human research ethics in a national and international context.

http://www.mcgill.ca/namhr/resources/ethics/

Research Ethics

This site, published by McGill University in Montreal offers a selection of links that contain articles and links about the ethical considerations in Aboriginal research. This is divided into both national and provincial sections. Interestingly, there is so section for research with First Nations in British Columbia. Some of these links are more useful than others, however, with the discussion that we have been having recently about research within First Nations cultures I felt that this was a very relevant post.

http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/pdfs/education_pdfs/sky%20stories%20teacher%20package%20-%20Final.pdf

Sky Stories: A First Nations Journey. Teacher’s Resources

This posting is strictly for primary teachers, but still a good read for everyone else. As a primary teacher I have taught grade three science a few times, this includes space and the planets. This is an excellent lesson plan on incorporating First Nations legends and beliefs into the unit. This was published by the Vancouver planetarium to be used in conjunction with viewing of the Sky Stories film. Although this is a western science based lesson plan (and somewhat commercial at that) I find it to be culturally sensitive and relevant providing an excellent example of how to incorporate these aspects in an academic unit.

http://www.uleth.ca/edu/edlinks/native2.cfm?category=Science

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education Links Database

This is a link to the University Of Lethbridge. This page contains a listing of resources on how to teach First Nations learners. These are mainly science links and some are quite good. I chose this particular page because of the discussions that we have had about science and First Nations learners. These resources are excellent for any educator working with First Nations learners. It still remains important to make sure that one examines for western bias in any of these links before deciding to integrate them into their practice.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091111/H1N1_summit_091111/20091111

First Nations H1N1 Summit Hampered by Digital Divide

I found this to be a very topical and ironic article to post. It’s a perfect example how the digital divide can affect first nations communities. This article highlights a virtual summit that occurred recently concerning the effects of the H1N1 virus. It concerned itself with preparedness and organizing a plan to deal with a potential outbreak. However, one thing that government forget to realize was that nearly half of the remote First Nations communities that were involved did not have high speed internet access to fully participate. This just shows how western culture often takes technology for granted assuming that everyone has equal access to technology. This relates to module 4 because it shows that the differences between western science and First Nations culture are prevalent and that they both follow different approaches in technology and science.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_some_negative_effects_of_explorers_contact_with_first_nations_in_canada

Quite frankly, there is no real reason for me to include this weblog. However, I figured it’s a good example of why we should not take Google searches and wikis as fact. As you can see, although the answer is certainly true, there are some “small” or “minor” things (such as colonization) left out of the answer. I would not want my students using this for projects, or for increasing their knowledge.

http://www.fncfcs.com/projects/FNRS.html

First Nations Research Site

The reason that I chose this site is because it is an excellent resource for those who work with First Nations children or in social work. The goals of the DNRS are as following:

• To assist the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare in analyzing and reporting on Canadian child welfare data, specifically data within the First Nations child welfare context;
• To share innovations and issues in practice, policy, knowledge research, skill development, and administration in First Nations child welfare;
• To stimulate discussion among local, regional, provincial and national child welfare agencies on current research, policies and/or practices that affect or benefit First Nations children, youth, families and/or communities;
• To promote networking and the exchange of ideas among First Nations practitioners, academic researchers, policy makers, and advocates who work in the First Nations child and family services field;
• To assist in building and strengthening research capacity among First Nations individuals, agencies, and organizations engaged in child welfare research, policy and/or practice;
• To build a pool of resources and networks from, within and among academic and private First Nations researchers;
• To promote the training of professional staff, researchers, caregivers, and volunteers;
• To promote the development of techniques for evaluating the programs and services delivered to First Nations children, families and communities by the First Nations child welfare agencies and organizations in Canada (Bennett & Blackstock, 2006, p.283-284).

This site is a fantastic site to help those who do research for the government or even for independent researchers. It provides guidelines and suggestions on researching First Nations in Canada and offers a fantastic mandate. I highly recommend reading the current projects for examples of what this program does.

Indigenous Research Applications in Social Work

http://www.aboriginalsocialwork.ca/research.pdf

This is an annotated bibliography that I found. The reason that I posted this is because it offers opinions and commentary on the research methods used in a large selection of books. Many of these books would be useful for out final research projects. There are roughly 20 books found in this bibliography including those that concentrate on proper research in Indigenous education, science and social work.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/09/16/mb-ottawa-body-bags-manitoba.html

Ottawa sends body bags to Manitoba reserves

This is a perfect example of not understanding and respecting other cultures. This whole incident could have been avoided with a minute amount of research and understanding of the cultures involved. At the beginning of the H1N1 scare the Canadian government made an improper and disrespectful mistake by sending body bags to First Nations reserves in northern Manitoba. The reason that I chose this article is that is shows what happens when one doesn’t conduct themselves in a manor appropriate to the culture that they are working with. It is considered to be inviting death to the community, which I assume is not necessarily the message that the government wanted to convey.

By not taking cultural beliefs in to account the government had a self created controversy. The communities were looking for help to fight this virus. These communities are among the hardest hit by this new ‘super flu’. They were looking for medication, not what the government sent to them. This is a prime example of why one needs to respect other cultures beliefs and act accordingly when working with them.

CMAJ

The ethics of research involving Canada’s Aboriginal populations

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/172/8/977

This is a letter, published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) that discusses terminology. The author expresses her concern about the term Aboriginality in medical journals and studies.  “Aboriginality” is a social construct with little grounding in the day-to-day realities of the heterogeneous groups to which it refers. Tremendous cultural, historical, socioeconomic and political diversity exists between and within these groups.”

Another aspect of this article is that the author talks about the ways that academic research will have to evolve to create an appropriate relationship with Aboriginal communities. “I have come to understand that it is only through an approach of mutual understanding, respect and partnership that academic research will be able to contribute to improving the health outcomes in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.”

I chose this letter because I fell that it relates strongly and offers a strong viewpoint towards the discussion of appropriate research in Aboriginal communities. This is an interesting viewpoint because it represents an opinion on research relating to medical studies.

Representation and Participation of First Nations Women in Online Videos

http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/0/5/2/pages230529/p230529-12.php

“Online videos have the potential to contribute or create an alternative or Aboriginal public sphere if First Nations women or Indigenous women start developing or creating videos and sites for video sharing that are specific to their concerns.”

This is a paper that was presented at the International Communication Association in 2008 in Montreal, Quebec. Its topic is straightforward and it is a very interesting and topical paper because it deals with First Nations women’s representation in online video, such as Youtube. This can be very intriguing for younger students to hear about due to their interest in Youtube and other streaming video services. There is a critique of the representation of First Nations women in three online videos that is a very engaging read.

I chose to present this paper because I believe that using online videos can help present issues and beliefs in a way that is creative, and also easily created. The potential audience is very high, and without any outside influences the videos can offer an excellent cultural representation that is true to the vision of the author.

Rabbit Fall: Do You Believe?

http://communities.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/print.aspx?postid=255076

ResXtra

http://communities.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/blogs/rezxtra/default.aspx

Rabbit Falls is a new TV show created by Jennifer Podemski, who also produced the drama show Moccasin Flats. This article is a review of the show from the online magazine ResXtra. The review, although found in a CanWest newspaper offers some interesting insight about some of the issues with producing television shows that involve First Nations legends.

“When critics first came out against Moccasin Flats, saying the show didn’t properly portray Regina’s inner city and perpetuated the stereotype that it was, “Canada’s worst neighborhood” – the same could be said for Rabbit Fall.   Visit any First Nation community in Saskatchewan and you’re highly unlikely to find a community like Rabbit Fall.   Furthermore, in First Nation culture, the telling of First Nation oral stories are supposed to be kept sacred or else used only for education and not meant to be told through the mainstream.  So with that said, is Rabbit Fall stepping over the line?”

I found this critique to be interesting because of its criticism of the show using  First Nations stories in a commercial way. The writer even goes as far as to compare it to a science fiction show and then retorts with  “But on APTN, where it’s about “sharing our stories”, does Rabbit Fall really share our stories?” The article questions whether or not this show is culturally sensitive and pays respect to First Nations culture, or if it is simply entertainment, and should be taken as such.

First Nations Drum

http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/

This is another alternative news site for First Nations stories and articles from around Canada. I find the articles to be well written and representative of many different aspects of First Nations culture. Many of the articles found in this site are the type of news stories that the mainstream media may not devote the proper amount of attention to.

There is a search engine and an excellent archive links found on this site. My reason for choosing this page is because I feel that it is important to view alternative news sources when researching First Nations issues. It reflects the current module because it is important to examine media sources that are not western society based. This website offers an excellent archive that goes back 10 years and should be very useful in finding relevant information for a multitude of academic research projects.

The Tyee Aboriginal Affairs.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Aboriginal-Affairs/index1.html

The Tyee is an independent online magazine that offers a different commentary that what you will likely find in the mainstream media. http://thetyee.ca/About/Intro/ It is a locally based magazine that believes that many British Columbians “are hungry for news and comment that reflects their actual lives, their own values.”

This is a link to the Aboriginal affairs section of the magazine. It is updated fairly regularly (at least once a week) and offers news stories concerning Aboriginal issues that are often more locally based and from a more independent perspective.

I feel that this is a valuable resource to post because it offers a different, more sensitive portrayal of First Nations concerns that the mainstream media. It is certainly less sensationalist and provides a more accurate description of First Nations cultures and issues.

Xwi7xwa Library

First Nations Filmmaking

http://www.library.ubc.ca/xwi7xwa/film.htm

I thought that this page would make an excellent resource for anyone interested in First Nations filmmaking in Canada. This page offers links to a variety of different pages that involve First Nations filmmaking in Canada. There is actually little information on this web page. It is simply a link page, but has a large amount of relevant links that may be difficult to find otherwise.

I believe this to be an invaluable resource simply because of their sheer amount of relevant links provided.

Some links that I found particularly interesting are.

There are links to education programs for First Nations students on the Gulf Islands and in Vancouver.

Aboriginal Program (Gulf Islands Film and Television School) http://www.giftsfilms.com/index.cfm?page_name=courses_calendar&view=COURSES_PROGRAM&gen_id=4

Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking (Capilano College) http://www.capilanou.ca/future/calendar/current/fine/indigenousfilm.html

The associations section had some intriguing links as well, although they are not necessarily Canadian based.

American Indian Film Institute Media arts centre that encourages using media to express Native voices http://www.aifisf.com/

Native Networks (Smithsonian) Listing of Aboriginal Film/Video Organizations from North and South America http://www.nativenetworks.si.edu/Eng/yellow/fv_orgs.htm

First Nations Connectivity Research Project

http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/smith/research/fncr/FirstNationsConnectivityResearchProject

This is an interesting site because it doesn’t necessarily gloss over issues relating to First Nations technology education. It relates itself to examining the projects proposed by the Provincial and Federal government for increasing broadband connectivity to First Nations communities. There is a section that contains the final reports of this project. They are available in PDF form here. http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/smith/research/fncr/FinalReport

Although the layout of this site is rudimentary at best, it is an excellent example of how a simple website can be used to maintain and transfer information collaboratively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1RUesqalw4

“Denise Williams, youth initiative officer for the First Nations Education Steering Committee, tells the Georgia Straight how Internet technology can strengthen First Nations education.”

This is an interesting video. I would consider showing this one to students, or to people that question the importance of internet technology for First Nations students. However, this video concentrates only on the positive and needs to be taken for what it is, not an in-depth article.

www.monecole-myschool.com

This is a listing of a group of First Nations schools in Quebec. It was put together by the First Nations
Education Council of Canada and has a very simple layout to it. The reason that I chose this site, aside from the interest in being able to view the sites of different communities, is the uniformity and ease of the web site and the links. This site is a very good example of a simple website that can be managed by students and administrators with a minimal amount of web design knowledge. I’ve noticed that with the rare exception all of the school links are based on two templates, which are easy to view and can have information added by students.

http://delicious.com/juhwawa/broadband

This is a delicious page with some excellent links to information of what broadband technology is. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post a delicious site, it is not a standard webpage, but I felt that the information found here was relevant. As well, for those that are not familiar with delicious, it provides an excellent introduction to the technology. Delicious is a social bookmarking website. Here is an description of what it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_%28website%29

Pathways to Technology.

http://www.pathwaystotechnology.ca/

I found this site when researching for topics and information for my abstract. Personally, I like the layout and overall design of the site, but that is not why I’m posting it here. The actual project seems designed to promote funding for technology resources for First Nations communities.

The most informative part of the website is on the ‘About the Project’ section. Near the bottom of the page there is a section on the benefits of broadband that is interesting to read. Under the partners section there are good descriptions about some of the organizations that have helped with the launch. There are some interesting organizations to check out here and use for research in upcoming projects.